Constant spam received in guestbook!

[Stevem]

I receive daily spam from an online poker gaming site to my guestbook. I have to delete atleast four or five submissions a day. What can I do to stop this without having to remove my guestbook? :confused:

[Neurasthenia]

Does your guestbook log IPs? If so, you can ban their IP using .htaccess. Or your guestbook provider may even allow you to ban by IP or email through them. If not I'd recommend finding some guestbook software that does allow you to ban by IP or email and switching to that. There's quite a few available.. I don't have one I would recommend off the top of my head but it's easy enough to find something decent. It's not a flawless solution but it should really help cut back on the spam, especially if it's usually coming from the same place.

[Landseer]

These gambling and poker sites are a royal pain in the ass, you can't ban them because their ip's change- ip bans simply do NOT work, especially on isp's like AOL which change ip's for users every time they log in.
Since you can't ban half the internet or all AOL users to stop the problem, there's really only a couple of solutions- dump the guestbook and put up a form to email you, or get one that has better filters.

Personally I think "guestbooks" are all but worthless gimmicks, they are usually offered "free" to install on your site but that "free" is not- it comes with having to give the guestbook provider YOUR email address and of course once they have it they can spam YOU, it also comes with ads- do you really want to pay web hosting and then have someone else making money on ads off YOUR site just to have a guestbook?

Filters don't work for long either, because you filter "poker" out and they start posting variations like "p0ker" "po-ker" "p_oker" etc, you could spend half the night dealing with that stuff.
Make an image of your email address, stick thaton your page and say "Email me your comments" and let it go at that, trust me, you will have a lot less headaches and spend far less time messing with html, filters etc.

I run a website for a California radio show host and every week I have to delete accounts created for no other reason than sticking those damnable poker site urls in the signatures.

PS: the SUREST way to get spammed is putting that mailto: link on your web site! make it an image not a clickable link, yes people will have to manually type it in.
I kept getting spam to two mailboxes and I figured out where they got it from- the stupid paypal coding you have to insert to have a website store and use PayPal in it.

So I got the free hiveware enkoder software and encrypted a NEW email address and i'm spamfree on that.

enkoder encryts any text to stuff like this which is unreadable but is converted by browsers within the script;

/* <![CDATA[ */
function hivelogic_enkoder(){var kode=
"kode=\"oducemtnw.iret\\\"(f<ro matgrte\\\\=p\\\"yaap\\\\l \\\"caitno\\\\=h"+
"\\\"ttsp/:w/wwp.yaap.loc/mgc-iib/newsbrc\\\"\\\\m teoh=d\\\"\\\\opts\\\"\\"+
"\\\\\\>\\\\r<natlb>et<>rt<>dr\\\\n\\\\i<pntut py=e\\\"\\\\ihddne\\\"\\\\n "+
"ma=e\\\"\\\\no\\\\0 \\\"avul=e\\\"\\\\iFinhs\\\"\\\\F>nisi hs(atdnra dsiB "+
"fu feYllwoo nhtsia shswo)ns lece tno.er\\\\n\\\\s<lece tanem\\\\=o\\\"0s"+
"\\\"\\\\\\\\>\\\\r<npoitnov laeu\\\\=B\\\"fu feYllwo\\\"\\\\B>fu feYllwor"+
"\\\\n\\\\o<tpoi navul=e\\\"\\\\lO diLemtsno erGye\\\"\\\\O>dlL miseotenG e"+

CONTINUES to a closing script tag to complete it and display right.

[Julianna]

You can also check whether it's possible for you to screen the submissions before they're actually posted to your guestbook. That way you can approve the real comments and decline the spam. You'll still have to see the spam, but at least it won't be all over your guestbook.

[Landseer]

Alternatives to a guestbook is a simple message board like this one but bare bones, many are free to download the software.

[Landseer]

Another option I found which I implemented is installing a php script, the script hides your email address with the coding in another file which can't be read. It creates a contact form to fill out and send.

It's only 3 files, very easy to configure as well as embed in a regular web page. If you wanted to get even more secure without cgi programming stuff, you can install the access page for the form behind a passworded log in page. People would have to type in the password and machines/spammers won't be able to do that.
You can put a link on every page to the form page